Smith ScholarWorks
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Theses, Dissertations, and Projects2012
Black students' classroom silence in predominantly White
Black students' classroom silence in predominantly White
institutions of higher education
institutions of higher education
Mahajoy A. Laufer
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Laufer, Mahajoy A., "Black students' classroom silence in predominantly White institutions of higher education" (2012). Masters Thesis, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
Mahajoy Adia Laufer
Black Students’ Classroom Silence in Predominantly White Institutions of Higher Education
ABSTRACT
This qualitative study explored Black students’ silence in classrooms at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) of higher education in the northeast United States. Fifteen student interviews revealed that teaching material centered on European-American culture and history influenced their silence. Participants perceived devaluing of people of color in course material and perceived that professors used and allowed racist language and opinions to pervade the classroom. Students negotiated the tension of having discordant views from the mainstream and at times, between other students of the same racial and cultural group. They often elected to speak out against perceived discrimination and remained silent in other times to avoid being judged. Often students found “safe spaces” including self-affirming majors and courses of study, and joined cultural and political student groups.
Most participants perceived that they were stereotyped as the “angry Black” person and felt intimidated when in the racial, social class, and gender minority. Many participants believed that self-silencing for the sake of gaining knowledge was instrumental for their development as a student. The study concluded with suggestions for multicultural curriculum development and social policies for countering race bias and microaggressions in PWIs to increase Black students’ comfort speaking out in class.
BLACK STUDENTS’ CLASSROOM SILENCE IN PREDOMINANTLY WHITE INSTITUTIONS
OF HIGHER EDUCATION
A project based upon an independent investigation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work.
Mahajoy Adia Laufer
Smith College School for Social Work Northampton, MA 01063
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my parents Prakash and Jody and my sisters for encouraging and supporting me. I thank my friends and peers who have helped me discuss, question, and think deeply about my work.
I thank my participants for opening up and sharing your experiences with me for this project. Your voices are beautiful, powerful, and moving. I am honored to have shared your insights, your profound words, thoughts, and feelings.
I would like to thank Hilton Kelly and Patricia Romney for inspiring me to get my Master’s. I thank my research advisor, Starr Wood for her guidance and insight. I would like to thank my best friend Lise for her never-ending good spirit and encouragement. I thank my partner Misty for her love, kindness, and humor.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... iii
LIST OF TABLES ... iv CHAPTERS I INTRODUCTION ... 1 II LITERATURE REVIEW ... 5 III METHODOLOGY ... 33 IV FINDINGS ... 40 V DISCUSSION ... 73 REFERENCES ... 93 APPENDICES Appendix A: Letter of Informed Consent ...107
Appendix B: Internet Posting, Letter or Email, Talking Points ...109
Appendix C: Data Collection Instruments ...110
Appendix D: Interview Guide ...111
Appendix E: List of Referral Sources ...113
Appendix F: Recruitment Poster ...114
LIST OF TABLES
Table
1. Demographic Personal and Family Information ...42 2. Demographic Institutional Information ...43
CHAPTER I Introduction
This qualitative study explored Black students’ classroom silence in predominantly white institutions (PWIs) of higher education in the northeast United States. The study used in-depth, face-to-face individual interviews to understand the institutional, structural, interpersonal, and intra-psychic processes that accompanied Black students’ classroom silence.
There is a body of exploratory research emerging on the challenges of Black students in higher education settings. A better understanding of those challenges will assist higher
educational systems and policy makers’ efforts to close the racial disparities in higher education. In addition, this study may illuminate how Black students’ classroom silences are shaped by their psycho-emotional comfort, personality, cultural background, experiences of racism, stereotypes, and Black identity development. A few small exploratory studies have been conducted along these lines.
In a focus group of 11 Black students in a PWI, Davis, Dias-Bowie, Greenberg, Klukken, Pollio, Thomas & Thompson (2004) identified a theme “They All Seem the Same; I’m The One Who’s Different.” Within that theme, Black students described that in classes with “sizable” numbers of Black students, or in classes taught by Black professors they felt able to speak without picking their words carefully or fearing that they “hindered” class discussions. In such classes, Black students spoke more than in classes with white teachers, or when they were the only Black student in the class. Using a focus group, Moore and Toliver (2010) studied six Black
professors’ effectiveness of teaching Black students in PWIs. Black professors explained that they often adapted the presentation of a class to reach Black students through teaching culturally relevant material. Black professors also said that they “go the extra distance” (p.941) to engage and mentor Black students.
Ogbu’s (2004) use of racial identity provided an explanation for Black peoples’ psychological stress when speaking in class. Ogbu found that Black people used Standard English (SE) to advance socially but subsequently weakened their cultural connection to the Black community. Black students often feared that if they spoke “white” and gained academic recognition, they risked losing a sense of belonging.
Helm, Sedlacek, and Prieto (1998) surveyed freshman and junior students of color about their perceptions of the university’s cultural climate and their satisfaction at the university. Many Black students reported disappointment in classes at PWIs because of the racist attitudes of professors and peers. In a mixed methods observation study, Harper (2007) explored 131 Black undergraduate students in Black sororities and fraternities. Under the theme “Forced
Representation,” students expressed that their classroom participation decreased when they felt that white teachers and students wanted them to represent their race.
In a published discussion, “Branching Out and Coming Back Together” (2010), three Black female college students explained that they spoke up in class to deflect stereotypes about Black peoples’ intelligence. In a two-year ethnographic study of 33 11th-grade students,
Fordham (1993) found that high-achieving Black girls did not speak in class voluntarily in order to “gender pass.” Black girls “gender passed” by avoiding romantic relationships or attracting attention to themselves. These girls diminished their female selves in favor of a masculine status equated with academic achievement. Morris (2007) found that Black girls in a Washington D.C.
public school were vocal and visible in all classes, including advanced placement classes. However, teachers constantly admonished these “loud” Black girls to act more like “ladies” and behave more demurely.
Clearly, this emerging area of study is indicating that cultural and political difficulties exist in the setting of higher education for Black students. It is logical to believe that these difficulties may be barriers to education and ultimately to graduation rates for Black students. Research in the area of classroom silencing is yet another example of how racism continues to deeply impact of the Black community. The research study question asks, How do Black students
describe, explain, and understand their own classroom silence in PWIs?
Definition of Terms
The definition of the term Black included people of African descent which encompassed African Americans and those from the African Diaspora world-wide. I chose to capitalize the “B” in Black as a way to resist negative stereotypes associated with Black people. The definition for a predominantly white institution (PWI) of higher education included community colleges and four-year public and private institutions where students of color made up less than
approximately 35% of the entire student body. I defined professor as any instructor in the institution. Silence was defined as not speaking particularly when feeling prevented from expressing a point of view. The definition of silence is prefaced on the understanding that all students have been silent at some point in their educational career. Speaking out was defined as voicing an opinion to two or more people. The definition of speaking out included the expression of an opinion in defense of a personal or political value or belief.
Organization of the Thesis
This study was divided into five chapters. Following the introduction, the second chapter presented literature about what is currently known about silence in all levels of schooling, in education, and across cultures. In the third chapter, methods for the study were outlined including the use of snowball and purposive sampling to obtain data, the procedures used to protect confidentiality, the data collection materials, and method rationale. In the fourth chapter, student responses to the study questions were presented in three themes. Lastly, the discussion section described implications for future research studies and suggestions for social policy and program development.
The conclusions of the study are that Black students spoke out more in classes when learning material related to various social identities including race, class, and gender. Students felt silenced and angry when being tokenized or stereotyped. Furthermore, when learning material centered on European-American history and culture, students felt uncomfortable addressing issues of power for fear of being seen as overly sensitive. However, students
sometimes felt compelled to educate classmates and professors. Black students believed that in-group silencing occurred and believed that self-selecting their silences to enhance their learning was an important educational tool.
CHAPTER II Literature Review
The literature review below will highlight past research about silence in a variety of settings such as intimate relationships, classrooms, and workplaces. The literature presented here was divided into four sections. The first section examined how silences conveyed various
religious, spiritual, cultural, and political meanings. The second section explored how racism and race stereotypes in a professor’s pedagogical style prevented or encouraged students to speak in class. In addition, this section looked at how tacit and blatant stereotypes and racial
microaggressions from staff and administrators impacted Black students’ comfort level. Conversely, institutions offering courses that valued Black culture and Black vernacular
increased Black students’ participation in class. The third section explored how personality and mood impacted Black students’ silence in the classroom at predominantly white institutions (PWIs), namely communication anxiety, self-silencing, and low assertiveness. The fourth and final section addressed how racial identity impacted Black peoples’ decision to speak out in places of employment and education. This section also discussed how participation in gospel choirs, Black Greek affiliations, and Black counter-spaces encouraged Black students to speak out.
What Silence Tells Us Understanding Silence in the Classroom
Researchers have argued persuasively that silence is a sociocultural phenomenon (Ronningstam, 2006; Schultz, 2009) and that in various communities, people categorize others by how they speak and what they say (Saville-Troike, 2003). For example, Navajo people valued tactful, discreet, and quiet speech while disapproving of bragging and pompous speech. One researcher found that bilingual Navajo and English-speaking Native Americans considered immediate responses in discussions impolite. In an education conference, bilingual Navajo and speaking teachers were “kept out of the discussion” (Saville-Troike, 2003) with English-speaking teachers because of bilingual speakers’ long periods of silence between questions and answers. Some Native Americans viewed silence as “an Indian way of communicating”
(Glatzmaier, Myers, & Bordogna, 2000, p.207) and believed that personal silence fulfilled a spiritual practice of communing with nature. A study of Navajo children found that “overt verbal performance is alien” (John, 1972, p.338) to children who value “quiet, persistent exploration” (p.338). Dumont (1972) studied Cherokee children taught by white teachers. One teacher used a multitude of “words, tones, and moods” (p.354) and called on individual students to speak in front of the class in answer to his questions. Dumont observed that the children were piercingly quiet in that classroom and believed that the students considered the teacher’s
methods incompetent and disrespectful. In another classroom at the same school, Dumont observed that Cherokee children asked questions and talked freely. The teacher in the livelier class talked less and encouraged students to work together without calling on students to speak in front of the class (Dumont, 1972).
Piestrup (1973) observed the ways teachers corrected the Black dialect of 208 first graders in Oakland. When teachers used a playful, story-oriented approach to teach reading and were aware of Black students culture and dialect, children learned to read with enthusiasm. When teachers corrected or interrupted students when they spoke in Black dialect, students withdrew “into a moody silence” (p.170). Other researchers have found that Black children were unlikely to respond to “known-answer” questions white teachers asked because they were more accustomed to inferential questions commonly used in the Black community (Heath as cited in “Discourse in the Classroom,” 2006).
Across many cultures, silence has been observed as a religious practice of respect, solemnity, and ritual (Jensen, 1973; Nyoye, 1985). Silence has been shown to manage
interpersonal conflicts and veil emotional intensity, as observed in the Valbella people of Italy (Nwoye, 1985; Saunders, 1985). Some cultures considered silence more valuable than speaking. For example, the Japanese valued haragei, or communication without words, more highly than eloquent speech (Saville-Troike, 2003). The Igbo people of Nigeria viewed silence both “a medium of communication in itself and a context for communication” (Nwoye, p.191, 1985). However, in fast-paced, industrial societies such as the United States, people accustomed to computer communication, television, news, and email rarely found moments of silence, making interpretations of silence rare (Li Li, 2004).
Silence in the Classroom
In research on elementary students, Schultz (2009) applied sociocultural theory to
understand, work with, and manage students’ silence. Schultz said that teachers must learn about the meanings of their students’ silence through careful observation. Li Li (2004) argued that “teachers often enlist ‘participation’ as an evaluation criterion. But they do not recognize ‘silent
active listening’ as a legitimate form of participation” (p. 82). For example, students were silent to show respect, to avoid saying something negative, to build rapport and agreement with another person, and to show kindness (Tannen, 1985). Silences also conveyed deference, hostility,
resistance, and defiance (Jenson, 1973). Some white students used silence to show
noncompliance with conversations about race in the classroom (Ladson-Billings, 1996), or expressed frustration when students of color brought up racist incidents by rolling their eyes, fidgeting or sighing loudly rather than speaking (Sue, Lin, Torino, Capodilupo, & Rivera, 2009).
Students’ silence at times served as a political resistance (Jensen, 1973). Minh-Ha (1990) argued that “silence as a will not to say or a will to unsay [dominant structures of control] and silence as a language [needs to be explored]” (p.373). Silence may then be a strategy to reject subservience by a refusal to interact. For example, Foley (1996) studied Mequaki students in predominantly white high schools. Anger at the racism and diminished expectations white teachers held of their intelligence, fear of new surroundings from leaving the reservation, and their lack of interest in the material was expressed through Mequaki students’ classroom silence.
Past research revealed researcher and teacher race-based biases about student silence. Gilmore (1985) conducted a three-year qualitative and observational study in a predominantly low-income Black elementary school. Through observations of students and teachers, interviews with teachers, administrators and parents, Gilmore explored “non-submissive subordinate” silences. In these power-play silences, Black students used defiant body language or “stylized sulking” to take over the teacher’s authority. Gilmore said that students’ insubordinate behavior could be “closely associated with a conveyed message of Black alignment” (p.161), suggesting that he considered stylized sulking a characteristic of Black culture. The study revealed white teachers’ assumptions of Black students’ behavior as insubordinate, without questioning the
teacher-student interaction that caused the behavior. Other researchers have also located silence in deficiencies of the individual students’ nature. In Dumont’s (1972) observation of Cherokee students, white teachers considered students innately afraid to speak, disengaged, and shy. Dumont (1972) observed lively behavior in students’ own communities and in the playground and realized that students used silence in their interactions with teachers in the classroom environment.
Peers and teachers have expressed race stereotypes of Asian people as characteristically silent (Lei, 2003; Schultz, 2009). In a two-year study, Lei (2003) found that many teachers and students in a racially diverse midwest high school viewed Asian boys, mostly immigrants, as shy, mysterious, and alienated from those outside their ethnic groups including Asian American students. Asian students’ own opinions countered the stereotypes that they were
characteristically quiet; they explained that their reluctance to speak in class came from their fear of being ridiculed for being unable to express themselves in English.
Chinese American author Kingston (1989) expressed the torment of being required to speak aloud when she first learned English. She described that her silence began in kindergarten when she had to speak in English and remained for the next three years. Kingston said, “The other Chinese girls did not talk either, so I knew the silence had to do with being Chinese” (1989, p. 80). Of a lesson recitation in front of other young students in her Chinese class, she wrote, “You could hear splinters in my voice, bones rubbing ragged against one another” (p. 81). Schultz (2003) stressed that, although people with marginalized social statuses such as women, people of color, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer (LGBTQ) individuals, and those with physical and mental disabilities must grapple with societal silencing, silence is always a choice.
However, many researchers suggest that structures that silence students of color are hegemonic and embedded in student and professor beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.
Schmader, Major, and Gramzow (2001) studied 676 Black, Latino, and white
undergraduate students to determine whether ethnic minority students disengaged from their academic performance on test scores due to their perception of negative race stereotypes. Schmader et al. explained that disengagement was made up of two components: discounting the validity of assessment reported to them and devaluing the importance of the feedback as
unrelated to the self. Schmader et al. analyzed responses from two quantitative measures on the devaluation of academic success and of systemic ethnic injustice students perceived to self and others in their own ethnic group. Results indicated that Black students did not devalue their academic success or discount test score results. However, Black students’ perceived personal discrimination and discrimination against their own ethnic group lead to greater discounting and devaluing of test scores as biased against them. Perceived systemic injustice was related to devaluing of academic success.
A study by Swim, Hyers, Cohen, Fitzgerald, and Bylsma (2003) studied 51 Black
students in a northeast predominantly white institution. They collected reports of racial incidents students recorded in diaries and analyzed them in conjunction with their scores on quantitative scales of emotion, identity, and self-esteem. Swim et al. found that students encountered “definitely prejudiced” racial incidents once every other week. Diary entries showed that overt verbal incidents were most frequently recorded with perpetrators who were aware of the prejudice they exhibited. The overt verbal incidents most often occurred with friends. Students also reported that staring was the type of incident most often encountered and that “bad service and interpersonal awkwardness [with white people] occurred at about equal rates” (p. 61).
Students reported that anger was the most frequent emotional response as well as decreased comfort and threatened feelings.
Imposed Silence, Encouraged Voice Teaching Practices that Silences Students
In her book Teaching to Transgress, hooks (1994) explained that many teachers avoided curriculum acknowledging race, class, and gender due to their fear of the uncontrollable
emotions such topics might elicit from students. hooks argued that for students of color, the avoidance of topics such as race may result in discomfort and lack of safety that may cause them to shut down.
The experience of professors who educate for critical consciousness indicates that many students, especially students of color, may not feel safe in what appears to be a neutral setting. It is the absence of a feeling of safety that often promotes prolonged silence or lack of student engagement. (p.39)
Sealey-Ruiz (2007) conducted a qualitative study of 15 Black female adults at a New York college with ages ranging from 23-57. Sealey-Ruiz (2007) gathered data from teacher conferences, direct observations of discussions, and students’ written assignments to explore whether students participated more when material was culturally and socially relevant to their own lives. When curriculum encouraged the use and study of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), explored the legacy of slavery and oppression, and fostered hope for personal goals and the future of the Black community, students’ vocal participation increased.
Lee (2006) studied Cultural Modeling (CM) in curriculum, which is the acquisition of academic knowledge combined with everyday knowledge. Like the previous study, Lee found that fostering spoken and written AAVE and using culturally relevant material boosted student
vocal participation. In a three-year “intervention” in a Black urban high school, Lee implemented CM into the literature curriculum with the purpose of using AAVE to bolster communication and interactive learning. Lee collected data through student and faculty interviews, classroom
observations and recordings, assessments of student comprehension of class material, and faculty meetings. Students were experts on class material such as rap lyrics, films, and short films, and therefore had more “genuine knowledge about the meaning of everyday texts” (Lee, p.310) than their teachers. Lee found that when students’ level of vocal engagement was high, which Lee calls “African-American English improvisational argumentation” (p.312), academic reasoning was at its highest. Additionally, Lee described that the value the curriculum placed on AAVE and students’ experiences in material comprehension was vital in instilling students with the sense that they “understood how to navigate” (p.317) their learning.
Black students’ racial identity may achieve Cross’ (1991) highest stage, characterized by a steadfast commitment to Black social issues through speaking out against racism when learning about history, culture, and politics in Black Studies courses (Adams, 2005). In a mixed methods study, 155 Black, white, and “other” students who were both enrolled and not enrolled in Pan-African Studies (PAS) at a predominantly white institution reported their GPA, completed the Black Identity Scale and then participated in one of six small focus groups. Black students who had taken classes in PAS expressed an increase in ethnic pride, self-confidence, academic success, and “voice” to stand up to injustice. Their fears of stereotype threat diminished, as did pressure to conform to white values more than Black students who had not taken a PAS class. White students who had taken PAS also increased motivation to be committed to social justice, to learn about racism, and to challenge white privilege.
Knaus (2009) argued that curriculum based on critical race theory, centered on marginalized groups’ narratives, was a way to resist white supremacy. Knaus (2009) applied critical race theory, defined as the deep-rooted presence of racism on several social levels including United State laws, institutions, culture values, and policies into his curriculum development. Knaus argued that mainstream school curriculum was essentially white
supremacist pedagogy that alienated and demeaned students of color. In Knaus’ study, critical race theory was applied through a creative writing class that focused on developing students’ voice. Through “voice class,” students wrote personal essays that stressed expression of emotions and personal experiences. In addition, students used material such as music, poetry, and rap to cover issues such as abuse, rape, poverty, violence, and drugs.
hooks (1994) also stressed the value of tapping into Black students’ every day and experiential knowledge. She argued that Black people were authorities on Black history and literature because they spoke from “the passion of experience, the passion of remembrance” (p.90) but were often simultaneously expected to be the “native informant” and provide information for white students’ learning. hooks required that all students she taught speak in class; even if they used sign language, she expected all students to contribute. One teaching strategy hooks used was to redirect students’ attention from her voice to listen more closely to one another particularly when relating academic material to one’s own experience. hooks
explained that this intentional redirection was a requisite to students’ liberatory learning, wherein teachers must inevitably relinquish dictatorial teaching. Liberatory learning allowed students to “come to voice” (p.148) so that they felt free to speak up in all classes. Some researchers have looked at whether the race of the teacher, in addition to pedagogical practice such as prioritizing
classroom discussions of race, class, and gender impacts teaching effectiveness for Black students.
Moore and Toliver (2010) conducted a focus group of 10 Black professors to discuss their effectiveness at teaching Black students in New York predominantly white universities (PWIs). One participant explained that Black professors were intentional about adapting class material to reach Black students. This participant believed that Black professors “go the extra distance” (p. 941) to engage and mentor Black students. Brown (2009) explored the pedagogic performance, or ways of instruction, of nine Black male teachers in an urban midwest school. In a two-week observation, Brown noted three different styles of performance among the teachers: the Enforcer, the Negotiator, and Playfulness. Brown noted that the teachers who used the Enforcer style instilled the importance of discipline and control through sternness and
seriousness, while teachers with the Playfulness style connected students to academic material by talking about Black popular culture. Brown argued that the Enforcers used an authoritarian teaching style to protect students from a society that harshly penalized Black males who rejected obedience. However, all teaching styles shared a commitment to the improvement of social conditions for the Black community.
In a focus group of 11 Black students’ experiences in a predominantly white southeastern university, Davis, Dias-Bowie, Greenberg, Klukken, Pollio, Thomas, and Thompson (2004) identified five themes. Under the theme of “It Happens Every Day”:
Unfairness/Sabotage/Condescension,” one student said that a professor’s offensive comments caused her to walk out of class. When the student confronted the professor about the comments, the professor threatened to give her a C. Within the theme “They All Seem the Same; I’m The One Who’s Different” students said they felt relieved in classes with “sizable” numbers of Black
students and in classes taught by Black professors. One student described her experience in such a class:
I think out of all my classes I have taken here my best experiences have been in classes with Black professors. And sadly to say that’s just how it is. I felt at home in those classes. I felt like I learned more because I didn’t have to spend time fighting with somebody I guess and saying quit looking at me or having to pick my words carefully, or there have been times when I felt like I hindered class discussions. (Davis et al., 2004, p. 432)
The study implied that she may have had viewpoints that countered white students’ viewpoints, so she opted to select her words carefully and minimized how much she said. A Black high school student in Carter’s (2007) qualitative and ethnographic study said that when he was one of the only Black students in a class he felt shy and unable to “open up.” Another study
examined many levels of silencing in predominantly white institutions and looked beyond individual teachers to administrators and general atmosphere of the institution for indicators about Black students’ comfortability.
Feagin, Imani, and Vera (1996), Solarzano, Ceja, and Yasso (2001), and Sue, Lin, Torino, Capodilupo, and Rivera (2009) found that teachers, administrators, and white students were often hostile and indifferent to the opinions and experiences of students of color. Students of color perceived that white students rolled their eyes and sighed with exasperation when issues of race were broached and sensed that professors ignored racial microaggressions that occurred in their classes (Sue et al.). According to Pierce (1970) who coined the term, microaggressions are subtle, often daily, intended or unintended mistreatments that ignore, tyrannize, and terrorize people of minority status. In the study by Sue et al. students of color said that feelings of anger,
self-doubt, anxiety, and exhaustion kept them from speaking up against microaggressions in class. Black students experienced strong emotion when teachers were indifferent about
addressing microaggressions or when they used material depicting Black people as criminal and violent. Solarzano et al.(2001) found that when white students became defensive or passive in regards to topics of race or blatantly stereotyped Blacks as academically inept, Black students felt shut down and angry.
Solarzano et al. conducted 10 focus groups across three PWIs that explored 34 Black students’ perceptions of microaggressions. The study found that professors assumed that Black students were unintelligent, gave a lower grade for a Black student than a white student with identical scores, and accused a high achieving Black student of cheating. In a focus-group study, Feagin et al. (1996) explored the experiences of 36 Black students and 41 of their parents at a PWI in the southeast. The study found that white professors made remarks that Black people were criminals, that they would fail in their field, and that their culture was “abnormal.” Black students felt alienated, angry, and dejected by the racist treatment (Feagin et al.). Perceived microaggressions often pressured Black students to prove that they attended a PWI because of merit rather than affirmative action (Fries-Britt & Turner, 2001; Solarzano et al). A Black female student at a southern university said that a white professor gave her the impression that she was not wanted in class by refusing to include her in the class and instead selecting a white student who had enrolled after her. In Feagin et al.’s (1994) study a Black male student noted that older white teachers often responded negatively to queries he had in the class but provided lengthy responses to white students’ questions. In a qualitative interview of nine Black students in a predominantly white high school, a participant remarked that white teachers ignored him when he expressed points in class or raised his hand in class (Carter, 2007). The teacher’s
disregard of his opinions, in his words, ‘proved’ his lack of value in class. In Johnson-Bailey’s (2001) qualitative study, Black administrator and teacher Faye noted that in higher education, white men challenged professors without any sort of reprisal. However, if a Black woman disputed the professor’s point she was met with resistance. hooks (1989) found that Black and white professors held equally pejorative views of Black students’ intelligence, presence, and opinions and Bowman and Smith (2002) found that white students, were not alone in holding “symbolic” racist beliefs towards Black students and minorities.
Bowman and Smith quantitatively studied race attitudes and beliefs of 68 Black, 86 white, 90 Asian American, and 46 Latino students in a large midwestern university. Bowman and Smith found that white students felt more strongly than Asians that minorities took advantage of economic benefits and held more political sway in desegregation policies, government, and media than they deserved. White and Asian American students equally held conservative views of reducing welfare programs more strongly than Latinos and Black students. Latino and Asian students held high cultural stereotypes of Black people as essentially “violent, poor, and welfare-preferring” (p. 115), whereas whites and Blacks held equally low cultural stereotypes of Blacks. Asian students most strongly opposed special programs such as
scholarships, admissions, and support services for Blacks and other minorities. This study did not discuss whether professors were adept at identifying and addressing such symbolic racism in the classroom.
Institutional Environments That Silence Students
Half the Black students in Feagin et al.’s (1996) study reported mistreatment by staff and administrators. They perceived that staff and administrators dismissed their concerns, rushed through guidance appointments, and gave inadequate information about financial services
provided at the predominantly white institution (PWI). The lack of quality time staff afforded Black students was alarming given Adam’s (2005) study that found a statistically significant positive relationship between satisfaction with the university and satisfaction with administration and teachers among Black and whites students. The importance of teacher and administration on college satisfaction outweighed satisfaction of close friendships, community involvement, and intra- and inter-race friendships (Adams, 2005). Black students in the study by Solarzano et al. (2001) perceived that counselors discouraged them from taking rigorous classes because of their race. Black students experienced heightened security surveillance at Black events and around campus and more severe penalties than white students for loud parties (Feagin et al., 1996; Solarzano et al., 2001). Such racialized scrutiny coupled with a rejection of Black students’ academic and social concerns reflected the notion that PWIs were “white spaces” where Black students were viewed as intruders (Feagin et al., 1996).
Other researchers examined how race bias impacted Black peoples’ mood. In a
quantitative study of 229 Black adults, Carter and Reynolds (2011) measured how stress, attitude of racial identity status, and emotional states were linked to race. Carter and Reynolds found that Black people of upper middle class were more likely to belong to the Dissonance racial identity status (devaluing Black status and valuing white status), while lower and working class people were more likely to belong to the Immersion racial identity status (aware of racism and
understanding whiteness). Furthermore, upper middle class Black people’s attitudes were lower in theImmersion/Resistance status (lower idealization of, and loyalty to the Black community). Mood states such as depression, anger, and tension were associated with Black people in the Conformity status (racial status ambiguity and confusion), while those with Internalization status
(objective towards dominant group, cohesive sense of self and commitment to Black group) had fewer emotional reactions of such intensity.
Helm, Sedlacek, and Prieto (1998) surveyed Asian, Latino, Black, and white students in Maryland about perceived racial diversity and satisfaction at the university. Black and Asian students who perceived faculty to be racist were more likely to be dissatisfied with their university than white and Latino students. Fries-Britt and Turner (2001) also studied how stereotypes impacted Black college students’ classroom experience. Some of the emerging themes were found in other studies, including having to prove their academic ability to peers and faculty (Fries-Britt & Turner, 2001; Sue et al., 2009) and receiving racist comments about physical appearance by faculty and peers (Fries-Britt & Turner, 2001). Black students’ emotional toll of encountering racism from administrators, students, professors, and staff may implicate philosophical differences at the institution level. Students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) received emotional, academic and spiritual support because of core values absent in PWIs.
In Speaking the Unpleasant, by Chavez and O’Donnell (1998), Chavez compared today’s HBCUs academic, spiritual, and socially supportive atmospheres to the philosophy of
pre-segregation schools. Chavez argued that pre-pre-segregation era values at HBCUs are still present in HBCUs. Pre-segregation HBCUs considered education a spiritual gift that prepared students to serve humanity. Teachers instructed by connecting material to their own lives and taught students about human conditions of others throughout the country. Chavez wrote differently about desegregated schools that he later attended. He said, “We no longer talked about freedom, the diversity of human experiences, and social advancement. The academic no longer coexisted
along with the struggle for freedom. It was replaced with competition, individualism, objective knowledge, and meritocracy” (p.34).
In her book Sistahs in College: Making a Way Out of No Way, professor and researcher Johnson-Bailey (2001) collected narratives from Black women who returned to college at a later point in their lives, many of whom had grown up during segregation. Marcie had attended two HBCUs as a traditional student and after 10 years of being out of school she went to a white college. She finally returned to a former HBCU. Speaking of the classroom environment at the HBCU in relation to the PWI Marcie said,
There are students [here] who are able to be heard that would never be heard in a classroom at a white large state university....You are heard [here] because you are in a Black women’s school and the Black woman instructor will look up and ask if they have something to say. She will take time to draw that student out in class. (p. 36)
Marcie noted HBCUs were not free of discrimination. Black elite’s colorist and classist views were endured by those from the “ghetto” causing lower class and darker skinned students to be silent. hooks (1994) described a similar awareness when she attended Stanford coming from a working poor background. hooks explained,
As silence and obedience to authority were most rewarded [in Stanford], students learned that this was the appropriate demeanor in the classroom. Loudness, anger, emotional outbursts, and even something seemingly innocent as unrestrained laughter were deemed unacceptable, vulgar disruptions of classroom social order. These traits were also
associated with being a member of the lower classes....It is necessary for students to assimilate bourgeois values in order to be deemed acceptable. (p.178)
As a professor, hook’s observed that Black students were the most active in vocalizing anger and frustration about conforming to middle class behavior. The tension to bridge “two worlds” of bourgeois social codes and class struggles often caused them to become passive or compelled them to avoid classes that devalued their voice.
Researchers have criticized the theory that Black students’ academic performance, reasoning, or speech result from being raised in cultural deprivation. Some researchers rejected the deprivation myth outright (Labov, 1994; Valencia & Solarzano, 2004 abridged), while some termed it “difference” (Gee, 1996). By the theory of cultural deprivation, or the theory of “difference,” Black children must acquire language by mastering middle class verbosity (Gee, 1996; Labov, 1994). In a 1965-1968 mixed methods study with groups of Black adolescent boys in Harlem by a team of two white and two Black researchers, Labov (2004) found that when the Black researcher, also raised in Harlem, interviewed an eight-year-old, he only elicited one-word answers. When the researcher brought bags of potato chips to create a party-like atmosphere, invited a friend of the eight-year-old, got down to the interviewees’ height, and introduced taboo words, the eight-year-old expressed himself colorfully and energetically. Labov noted that a teacher will need to enter the social world of Black children to elicit their speaking because of the power imbalance between teacher and student. Labov also interviewed a college-educated Black man of upper middle class in a study of South Central Harlem adults. Labov found that the man’s “middle class verbosity” (p.144) such as repetitive, decorative “fashionable words” was emblematic of a culture that believed middle class speech represented one’s learning. He further stated that, unlike those people “enmeshed in verbiage, speakers of Black Vernacular English take great delight in [verbally] exercising their wit and logic on the most improbable and problematic matters” (p.144).
Mood as an Explanation for Silence Silencing the Self, Communication Anxiety, and Assertiveness
Researchers Carr, Gilroy, and Sherman (1996) studied 40 Black and 40 white women’s silencing the self in intimate relationships to see how it related to mood. Three quantitative measures were used: the Silencing the Self Scale (Jack & Dill, 1992), the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (1964), and the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961). The study found that Black and white women silenced themselves equally. Depression was linked to silencing the self for white women but not Black women (Carr et al.). The below study researched at-risk students’ mood and communication without studying race.
Lippert, Titsworth, and Hunt (2005) applied the ecological model, a model that accounts for the social, individual, and cultural factors of academic risk, to explain verbal aggression (VA), communication apprehension (CA), and supportive communication (SC). Lippert et al. quantitatively analyzed students from a large midwest university; 160 were regular admission students and 82 were on academic probation due to low test scores. The McCroskey Scale (2001) measured CA in dyadic, meeting and group communication; the Infante and Wigley (1986) Verbal Aggression Scale assessed students’ verbal aggression; and the Supportive Talk About School (2005) measured school support from family and friends. Lippert et al. found that among the three situational types of CA, academically at-risk male students had higher levels of CA than males who were not at risk. However, at-risk females reported lower levels of CA than females not at risk. At-risk males held higher levels of VA than at-risk females, but the difference was not significant.
Byrd and Sims (as cited in Ralston, Ambler, & Scudder, 1991) studied 144 Black students at two different midwest predominantly white institutions (PWIs) to see if race
contributed to increased CA in the classroom. The study analyzed CA through two quantitative measures: McCroskey and Richmond’s (1987) Classroom Communication Apprehension
Measure (CCAM), a 10-item self-report that measured the context of CA and Personal Report of Communication Apprehension Measure that asked students to report traits of CA on a 24-item questionnaire. Byrd and Sims modified the CCAM by requesting that students indicate their level of anxiety in classes when in the racial minority. Byrd and Sims found that males reported
significantly higher levels of CA than female students. Harlson (1995) researched communication from another angle, namely, whether certain social statuses impacted assertiveness.
Haralson performed a mixed methods study on how socioeconomic status (SES), year in college, and gender influenced assertiveness of 560 Black college students in four southeast PWIs. Students’ assertiveness was measured with the College Self Expression Scale (Galassi et al., 1974). Attitudes and beliefs of 21 of the 560 Black students who had completed the
quantitative measure were explored using the Qualitative Interview Survey Questionnaire. Quantitative results indicated that gender, school year, and SES did not have a significant effect on students’ assertiveness. However, the qualitative measure showed that males held higher positive assertiveness such as friendly behavior than females who showed higher negative assertiveness such as anger-expressing behaviors. Both males and females showed higher than average negative assertive scores. Furthermore, qualitative interviews showed that the majority of the 21 students were most comfortable adopting passive submissive assertive styles and that their passiveness had increased since coming to a PWI. Some students perceived that speaking
out aggressively in class and speaking with teachers outside of class increased attention from white teachers. Male students believed that white teachers were either non-responsive or academically punitive because of their outspokenness. Future studies might examine the social and academic effects of Black students expressing lower friendly behaviors in PWIs than students at HBCUs (Haralson, 1995). Such a study might explain how isolation, not only between Black students and those from other races, but among Black students may relate to silence in class.
Black Identity and Culture Acting Too White, Speaking Too White, or Too Black
Ogbu (2004) reviewed ethnographies and autobiographies from slavery to the present in a theoretical study on collective identity which was defined as the sense of belonging to the Black community. Ogbu developed six themes from his analysis. Three particularly noteworthy themes were: peer pressure against coping strategies of acting white, oppositional frames of reference, and coping strategies for “the burden of acting white” (p.14). According to Ogbu, language use was an in-group strategy to strengthen bonds to the Black community. From this standpoint, Black English reflected solidarity with other Black people and could “deceive, confuse and conceal information from [w]hite people in general” (Dalby, 1972, p.172). Under the theme of peer pressures from acting white, Black people who spoke Standard English (SE) were often ostracized by other Blacks because they had “joined the enemy.” Ogbu explained that in the present, Black students who fear they are “acting white” may hide that they study, act like class clowns, or pretend they do not understand class work. Black people who began to talk and act “white” felt psychological stress because of their perceived lack of loyalty to their own people. However, code switching around white people or even abandoning cultural ties to the Black
community allowed Black students to “gain acceptance and approval from those in power” (hooks, 1989, p. 80).
Robinson (1996) conducted a quantitative study of 135 undergraduate students (race unspecified) at a university in Michigan. The study explored the impact of their high or low cognitive complexity and high or low race bias on a perceived Black or white speaker’s use of non-standard English. Students were randomly given a packet that indicated the speaker was Black or white or to the control group where race was not mentioned. The participants listened to a 45-second recording of a male speaking non-standard English. Next, participants completed the Speaker Evaluation Attitude Questionnaire that focused on the speaker’s social status,
dialect, and educational background. Participants then completed a qualitative measure where they wrote how friendly they considered the speaker to be. Lastly, participants’ cognitive complexity was measured using the Role Category Questionnaire (Crockett, 1965) and
completed the Rokeach Race Belief Scale (Rokeach, Smith, & Evans, 1960) that measured race prejudice. Robinson (1996) found that both Black and white experimental groups rated the speaker of non-standard English as uneducated and of low socioeconomic status. Results also indicated that low and high cognitive complexity paired with low and high racial bias were influenced by the perceived race and dialect of the speaker.
In a study of 102 Black undergrad students in a public southeast university, students rated an audio tape of a Black man speaking either Black English (BE), code switching (CS) in an appropriate social context with a friend (ACS), CS in an inappropriate social context (ICS) in an interview, or Standard English (SE; Koch, Gross & Kolts, 2001). Participants then rated the speaker with the Revised Speech Dialect Attitudinal Scale (Mulac, 1976). Koch et al. found that on the measure of whether participants would be friends with the speaker, participants rated the
SE and ACS speaker higher than ICS but the difference between the SE/ACS and BE-speaker was not significant. Koch et al.’s findings suggested that Black students considered people who violated the social norms of speech in formal contexts unattractive friendship prospects.
Interestingly, participants rated SE and ACS similarly on the getting to know the person measure, indicating that they did not regard BE as inherently negative. Koch et al. also found that across gender, participants rated SE and ACS-speakers as having higher socio-intellect and rated the SE speaker higher than the BE or ICS-speakers in attractiveness.
In a southeastern predominantly white institution (PWI), Payne, Downing, and Fleming (2000) examined how 72 Black students perceived a speaker’s character based on whether or not they spoke BEV. Students listened to a 4-minute audio-taped excerpt of a speech by Jesse
Jackson translated into BEV. Students then completed a 7-point item measurement of speaker credibility (McCroskey & Young, 1981), a 7-point measurement of speaker sociability
(McCroskey & Young, 1981), and a demographic data informational form. Students then listened to the same speech delivered in Standard English (SE) and completed the same two 7-point measures. In the findings, students reported SE-speakers had stronger character, more competence, and higher sociability than the BEV-speaker, but less honesty. Payne et al. believed that Black students rejected BEV because of a desire to fit into the mainstream. Given the
breadth of studies on bias and Black English, code switching, and Standard English in this literature review, it is surprising that the literature left out in-depth descriptions defining and explaining what those dialects were comprised of. Further, none of the literatures indicated whether speakers themselves were speakers of BEV.
Black Women Who Speak Out, Black Girls Who Are Too Loud
Bell, Meyerson, Nkomo, and Scully (2003) explored 80 Black and 40 white women’s life histories and challenges in the workplace to understand how they instigated change in the
workplace or in the community. Bell et al. found that white women did not overtly express anger at sexism or racism in the workplace while Black women often expressed frustrations vocally. Giving back to the community and having fluid cultural ties allowed Black women to maintain a sense of belonging to the Black community even while becoming independent and economically successful. Black women explained that these cultural connections were reasons they spoke out against racism and sexism at work. Believing in meritocracy, conceiving the self as an agent of change rather than the system as an agent of change, and being unable to understand “rituals, languages, and assumptions of groups other than their own” (p.396)were reasons white women did not speak out at work. Bell et al. found that Black women who used silence to “armor” themselves from racism and race stereotypes distanced themselves from people of color. Their findings suggested that when Black women had a racial identity that rejected Black culture, their voice was inhibited, but in particular when issues of racism surfaced.
Black college students curbed their objections to opinions raised by white classmates because they wished to appear “objective,” academic, and unemotional (“Branching Out and Coming Back Together,” 2010; Fries-Britt & Turner, 2001). In a published informal
conversation, three young Black women’s experiences at PWIs were explored (“Branching Out and Coming Back Together”). Two of the young women spoke of discomfort in classes
particularly when race came up because they felt the topics magnified their race. However, the two young women assented to educate white students on Black history and culture in an effort to quell stereotypes. One of the young woman said, “I have to be in class with these people...always
raising my hand, always answering questions. I don’t want to be that [B]lack girl, sitting there, ‘she’s a [B]lack girl, she got in because she’s a minority’ (p.62).
Fordham (1993) may have defined the young Black women from the previous study as gender “passing” where she described that to adhere to the academy’s insistence that Black and white women be “taken seriously” they must hide their femaleness. Fordham’s studied 33 high and low-achieving 11th-grade students and found that high-achieving Black females possessed a “ghost-like existence and status at their school,” (p.10) did not speak spontaneously in class, or “announce and celebrate their presence” (p.16). Further, parents restricted Black girls’ female sexual relations so that they would focus on their grades. These invisible Black girls hid their opinions, avoided romantic relationships, and gave up their ability to stand up to administrators and teachers who doubted or dominated them.
Studies have found that teachers, administrators and staff and students considered Black high school girls “disruptive,” “large and loud,” (Lei, 2003) and “unladylike” (Morris, 2007). One Black teacher in Morris’ (2007) two-year mixed methods qualitative and ethnographic study explained that Black girls’ loudness was their defense against “the system” that did not provide for them. Lei (2003) conducted a nearly two-year qualitative study of students, teachers,
administration, and staff at Hope High School in the midwestern city of Jackson. Lei found that Black girls’ loudness resisted oppression and asserted their status as “somebodies.” Loudness was therefore an act of resistance to the systemic invisibility of Black women. However, many adults perceived Black girls’ loudness as threatening; certain teachers hid in staff rooms to avoid confronting race issues Black girls wanted to discuss (Lei, 2003). Although many teachers encouraged Black girls to behave more like ladies (Morris, 2007) by being quieter, one teacher told Black girls that to be a lady meant to behave with “strength, outspokenness, and
self-reliance traditionally rooted in Black femininity” (p. 509). Morris found that Black girls often dominated classroom discussions in science and math classes, and outnumbered Black males and Latina females in advanced placement courses. Morris’ findings suggested that Black girls’ loudness was an asset to their academic success.
Finding Voice
For people of color, finding one’s voice is an act of resisting oppression (hooks, 1989; Li Li, 2004; Housee, 2010). hooks (1989) said, “for us, true speaking is not solely an expression of creative power; it is an act of resistance, a political gesture that challenges politics of domination that would render us nameless and voiceless (p. 8).” hooks wrote about the transformative process that takes place when one speaks and argued that speaking is an active way for an individual to move from object to subject. An empirical study analyzed how group membership helped Black students feel confident moving from “object” to “subject” by speaking out.
In a mixed methods observation and focus group study of college students, Harper (2007) researched 131 Black sorority and fraternity members about their class participation in
predominantly white classes. Harper found that students felt a responsibility to speak more in class to quell stereotypes about Black people and Greeks as “party animals,” to increase learning, and to show they understood the material. Students participated more in class to uphold the cumulative grade of their chapter and to be role models for other students. Students said their participation decreased when white teachers and students wanted them to represent their race, also found in other studies (“Branching Out and Coming Back Together,” 2010; Carter, 2005; Harper, 2007; hooks, 1994; Strayhorn, 2011), but increased when a teacher’s style was engaging and interactive.
A study of gospel choir membership for Black students at predominantly white
institutions (PWIs) explored how singing in a gospel choir helped students find voice. Strayhorn (2011) used qualitative interviews to study 21 Black students at a southeastern PWI who were members of a gospel choir. Strayhorn explored the importance of the choir on students’ social and academic success. A female student noted that “singing with Voices helps me feel like I matter, well, we [Black people] matter to [said university]” (p. 142). Another student said that songs of Black heritage allowed him to “give voice to the sounds of Blackness (Strayhorn, 2011, p. 147)” that could “speak the unpleasant” (Chavez & O’Donnell, 1998, p. 32) about slavery for example. Gospel choir members felt burdened about representing their race but enjoyed stepping into the educator role through gospel music. Students noted that the gospel choir connected them to inner strengths such as “faith, hope, intelligence, and confidence in one’s own abilities” (p. 145).
The above studies showed psycho-emotional benefits for Black students who joined cultural groups and organizations. Black students groups at PWIs were “an attempt at self-determination and cultural maintenance in a sea of whiteness” (Feagin et al., 1996, p.72). The Black community often accused middle class Black people of abandoning the community unless they showed their loyalty to the community through joining Black cultural groups or Black social movements (Harper, 2006; Ogbu, 2004). Researchers have used the term “counter-spaces” (Carter, 2007; Solarzano et al., 2001) to describe the activities or places that help Black people find rejuvenation of their racial identity and protection from racism. Carter (2007) observed and interviewed nine high-achieving Black students in a predominantly white northeast high school and their use of counter-spaces. Carter found that the “The Stairs” that lead up to the library was a place students congregated to connect to their racial identity. At “The Stairs,” Black students
bonded with “fictive kin,” (other students who shared economic, cultural, and social similarities), highlighted their Blackness by speaking in Black English Vernacular (BEV), talked loudly, braided hair, and discussed popular culture. Some students said that they felt more free at the stairs and able to talk whereas in class they felt restricted by norms of “speaking correctly” or pressured when being the only student of color in class. Carter argued that “The Stairs” gave Black students connection to the Black community which is necessary for their “academic survival” (p.551).
Summary of Literature
Past research has laid a broad framework for understanding Black students’ decision to remain silent in class and their choice to speak out. Sociocultural explanations for silence
included cultural upbringing that valued silence as a form of eloquence, spiritual expression, and political resistance to material or teachers’ low expectations. Studies have indicated that the anxiety of appearing unintelligent, doubting support for unpopular race-related views, communication anxiety, and low mood affected Black students’ silence. From a systemic perspective, the academy silenced students when campus security considered Black students criminal, when counselors were unresponsive to students’ academic goals, or when staff
provided inadequate information about financial and academic services. Professors were at times complicit in stereotyping Black students as criminal, engaging white students more actively, dismissing Black students’ academic, career and personal concerns, and doubting students’ academic ability. Black students felt silenced when professors instructed using material rife with microaggressions, adopted a passive stance when racial incidents occurred in the classroom, or taught in an inactive manner. Black and white teachers engaged Black students by finding culturally relevant course material or using teaching styles that were effective in engaging Black
students. However in some cases, both Black and white teachers perceived Black students as less talented and driven than white students. From a race identity perspective, Black students chose not speak in class or perform highly in class to avoid being considered “white.” Other Black students spoke out to counter negative stereotypes about Black people. Furthermore, language inhibited students from speaking in class; Black students anticipated negative stereotypes about intelligence from other people of color and white people for speaking Black English Vernacular (BEV) or not speaking in a manner acceptable in the institution’s academic culture. Conversely, in classes where students actively used BEV, studied material directly related to their racial and ethnic experiences, and encouraged emotional connection to material, Black students spoke more. In addition to culturally competent class material and instruction, students found encouragement for their voice in organizations such as Black Greek affiliations and gospel choirs.
CHAPTER III Methodology Purpose of Research
The purpose of my study was to describe Black students’ classroom silence at
predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Using qualitative open-ended interviews, I collected data from Black college students in several PWIs in the northeast United States to address the following question, How do Black students describe, explain, and understand their own
classroom silence in PWIs?
Research Method and Design
I chose a flexible method of research, meaning that the data was “recorded as a flow of events and conversation...or a verbatim record of a conversation with a given purpose” (Anastas, p. 414). The purpose was to discover unexplored information about Black students’ silence in classrooms at PWIs. I collected demographic data including gender, sexual orientation, race, language, age, major, family socioeconomic status (SES), city and state of origin, and year of study at the PWI. I collected data through individual face-to-face interviews using open-ended questions to elicit the richness of personal perspectives. I conducted interviews in quiet public places and campus buildings to increase participants’ comfort in speaking openly. It is likely that interactions prior to the interview through email or phone calls established rapport and
encouraged students to delve deeply into their personal narratives during the interview (Anastas, 1990).
Sample and Recruitment
I used purposive sampling to recruit my sample. Purposive sampling required that I define exclusion and inclusion criteria to seek people who fit the selected inclusion criteria (Anastas, 1999). My study looked at the population of Black English-speaking students in PWIs. The study population included Black students in post-graduate studies and in undergraduate studies in the northeast United States. My exclusion criteria for the sample were students in grade school, those not attending college, those from colleges with over 35% students of color, non-English speaking students, those under 18, and non-Black populations. Thirty-five percent reflected my personal belief of an adequate “critical mass” of students of color in an institution. According to critical mass theory, a critical mass of students of color is not an actual number, but the concentration of students of color to prevent minorities from feeling alienated, pressured to “represent their race,” or uncomfortable speaking up about personal experiences in the classroom (Anderson, Daugherty, & Corrigan, 2005; Cole, Bennett, & Thompson, 2003). The definition of silence included stifling a thought or an opinion by being silent. Speaking out was defined as vocally expressing a perspective with at least two other people, often one that countered a dominant view.
I chose the term Black because I wanted my sample to include people from many
nationalities which the term African American might have excluded (Wijeyeshinghe & Jackson, 2001). The research included racial and ethnic diversity among Black people. Students
identifying as mixed race, students of varying socioeconomic backgrounds, and geographic locations were sought. Males and Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer (LGBTQ) students were actively sought. I sought participants from a variety of higher educational institutions
including four-year colleges, two-year colleges, graduate schools, private, and public colleges and universities.
I relied on snowball sampling, meaning acquaintances and respondents who had participated in the study recruited potential participants through word of mouth. Snowball sampling enabled me to recruit “hidden” populations that make up a slim percentage of the higher education student body (Anastas, 1999), for example Black LGBTQ individuals, Black men, and Black graduate students. I also recruited participants by posting fliers in coffee shops (see Appendix F) and sending emails to people who might know of potential participants (Appendix B). Obtaining the sample was feasible because of the large population of students in the recruitment area. All of the Five College institutions in western Massachusetts are PWIs and between them have approximately 1,500 Black students. Cities and towns outside the Five College area but still within western MA, host many PWIs, colleges, and community colleges that between them have approximately 2,454 Black students. Limits to the use of nonrandom sampling were that it did not produce a representative sample and therefore had limited generalizability. For instance, Black students who found their classroom silence too painful to recount may have been represented using random sampling. In the current study only those students who felt comfortable enough to have stayed at a PWI or to talk about their silence, were included. The findings of my study are not representative of any particular college or of the larger Black population of Black students in PWIs in the United States because of the small sample size of 15 participants, the use of nonrandom sampling, and the fact that only a few students from each university participated.
Data Collection
Fifteen one-on-one interviews were conducted with students who fit the research criteria. Participants’ rights and privacy were protected through the submission of my study to the Human Subjects Review Board of Smith College School for Social Work prior to collecting data. I received approval from the Human Subjects Review Board (HSR; Appendix G) stating that the study was in accord with codes stipulated by the National Social Work Codes of Ethics and the Federal regulations that protect human subjects. I sent a letter of informed consent to participants prior to the interview. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions about the research
through the initial contact by phone or email. Participants completed the form prior to the
interview and we reviewed and both signed the letter of informed consent in-person prior to data collection (Appendix A). Demographic data were collected through a questionnaire (Appendix C) administrated before the personal interview. Participants were also given a list of mental health centers to contact should the interview cause any discomfort (Appendix E).
Demographic data such as race, age, gender, social economic status, sexual orientation, city and state of origin, student year, and academic major were obtained since literature has shown these variables may affect the psychological well-being of participants when studying any social phenomenon (Gomez, 1990). I studied Black college students making race a necessary demographic to analyze. Age was important to show how students of different ages had different perceptions of their silence. Analyzing gender helped me understand whether students’
perceptions of being silent differed based on gender. The type of major may have contributed to students’ choice of silence because some courses require more talking than others. Sexual orientation was important to determine whether homophobia and heterosexism may have influenced whether a Black person remained silent in the classroom. Socioeconomic status and
